Nat Dixon felt left out Wednesday night.
Sitting at the McKenzie Arena media room podium after the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's 76-71 basketball win over Samford, Dixon and fellow junior Makinde London were looking at the stat sheet when London blurted, "Nat, how many boards you have?"
Dixon looked at said, "Only three. Y'all did everything for me today."
London, senior Joshua Phillips and freshman James Lewis combined for 34 rebounds in the Mocs' first win since Dec. 23 and first Southern Conference victory since last Feb. 15 - a span of 12 games. The Mocs out-rebounded Samford 55-29, by far their largest margin of the season. It was also the first time UTC controlled the paint all season.
UTC coach Lamont Paris directs freshman James Lewis Jr. on the sideline during the Mocs' Southern Conference home victory Wednesday. UTC had lost eight straight games before the 76-71 victory."We did a great job of keeping them fresh," UTC coach Lamont Paris said postgame. "My assistants told me when to sub every single time, so I'll give them all the credit for that. We did a really good job of keeping them fresh, we were active and had some second-chance opportunities. The bigs did a great job throughout the game, did a good job defensively.
"We can't make them play like that every single game, but it would be nice because our chances (to win) go up."
London played 27 minutes off the bench while Lewis played 22. Phillips, the starter who averaged 29.3 minutes in the previous four games, played only 18 minutes and was able to play with more energy with the shorter spurts, finishing with four points and a career-high nine rebounds.
Phillips didn't join the team until Nov. 25 after playing football, and it took a while for him to get settled. Injuries to London and Lewis forced the 6-foot-8 senior walk-on and former Middle Tennessee State basketball player to play more. Now that the other two forwards are back, Phillips has some serious help.
"It's night and day from when I first started," he said Thursday. "Now that Makinde and James are back, we're a everybody-has-to play-their-role kind of team now and I fit back to what I do best, which is hustle, play good defense and get rebounds."
London contributed 21 points and a career-high 19 rebounds - 16 defensive - while Lewis had only four points but six rebounds. The trio may not be able to replicate that performance game in and game out, but if they can come close to it in future games - starting Saturday against Virginia Military Institute - it will open space for the guards, which hasn't happened a lot this season.
"James has an unbelievably high ceiling," London said. "He's definitely one of the more talented skill guys I've seen in a while as far as understanding things, and he still has room to go. Joshua gives us a whole 'nother aspect of physicality, toughness, grind and grit - a lot of things we need.
"It's why I think this team is going to be something special. I have complete faith because we have a lot of pieces; it's simply putting it together."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.